There was an important lesson buried in the aftermath of the bizarre week that the Trail Blazers gave us. It wasn't just a lesson for Kevin Pritchard, who lost his job. Or for the players, who watched the general manager who brought them to Portland unceremoniously dumped. Or for the coach, or leftover management, or even owner Paul Allen.

The lesson was for all of us.

It's this: Celebrate your team, or you're toast.

It's true that Allen is socially clumsy and disconnected. He doesn't skate free here. But you couldn't miss the pile of tangled egos at the Blazers headquarters.

The punctuation in president Larry Miller's post-draft news conference hit like a sledgehammer Thursday. Said Miller: "Kevin was a part of the team that brought some great players to this organization and really turned this organization around. Again, Kevin was a part of it; there was a team of people that did this, it wasn't just Kevin."

Pritchard writes to fans

Former Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard wrote an open letter to Trail Blazers fans Saturday.

Pritchard was offered up as the organization's Golden Boy. He was trumpeted during the past three years as the man with the culture-first mantra. But in the end, human nature rules. Even with a fair bit of success in a position that demands it, if you're not sufficiently managing up and patting the backs of those around you, you might as well pack it up.

Pritchard did.

I imagine careful listeners who heard Miller's news conference went home and thanked their spouse for making it all possible and hugged their children. Maybe those who work in key positions at their places of employment dashed off glowing e-mails to the people they work alongside. No harm in showing some appreciation. Much harm in the risk of making people feel unappreciated, apparently.

Remember the clumsy e-mail threat the Blazers sent to the rest of the NBA in January 2009 warning teams not to sign Darius Miles? It was initially described as an "organizational decision," but ultimately Pritchard distanced himself and the move was pinned to Allen's Vulcan, Inc. attorneys with Blazers president Miller as the person who sent it off.

Also, remember the flap over the final roster spot last training camp? Again, keeping Patty Mills over fan favorite Ime Udoka was termed an organizational decision, right up until Pritchard made it public that Allen overruled the basketball operations people and wanted Mills on the roster.

It seems some key people felt Pritch-slapped over time. And I suppose they should have simply grown up, gotten over it and accepted that the Blazers were better off with Pritchard running the team. But in the end, they could not. And Pritchard's firing serves as a teaching moment for anyone who has to manage or work with people. Basically, all of us.

I keep hearing those burning words from Miller: "It wasn't just Kevin."

Not just Kevin evaluating talent. Not just Kevin making the picks. Not just Kevin signing free agents. And in the end, Kevin was fired, perhaps, just to prove the point.

Blazers fans accurately viewed Pritchard as the person responsible for reviving the brand. He was the guy in charge of personnel, so he got the credit just like he would have received the blame. But maybe he could have saved himself by placing a moratorium on the "In KP We Trust" signs at the Rose Garden.

The egos got him.

In the final days of the Blazers season, with Pritchard thrust into the public eye, begging for his job, I bumped into a senior member of Blazers management in the hallway at the arena. The manager, a deft champion of office politics, ridiculed Pritchard and said, "I can't believe someone in a position of leadership would be OK to sound so weak and beaten publicly."

I asked Pritchard, "What did you do wrong?" countless times during the last few weeks of the season. I asked people around him. I asked sources at Vulcan and with the Blazers. But in the end, it kept coming back not to some phantom human resources issue or a bad free-agent play, but to Pritchard's failure to make the people in positions of power feel more connected and appreciated.

He didn't empower his owner enough. Even as he thanked scouts and remembered the first names of the ushers at the arena, he apparently needed to do more schmoozing of the high-ranking officials to avoid taking a knife in the back. And I suspect he knows this, given his open letter to Blazers fans in which he glows about Allen's ownership, which is, at best, a mixed bag.

There's a lesson of humility here. One about grace, too. You live by different, but simple, rules when you're in a position of authority in a big operation. Kiss the king's ring. Spread the credit around, even maybe when it's marginally deserving. Friends close, enemies closer. All that stuff.

There's a deep, wicked irony here. Because Pritchard's buzzword was "culture." He used the word so frequently in his first year as GM that he often caught himself and would stop and say, "I know, I just said it again," when the word came up in conversation. But in the end, while Pritchard beamed publicly and fostered a roster everyone loved, he became loathed by those who controlled his future. The culture around him was poisoned, and the plotting began.

Allen could have salvaged this situation if he were a better owner and more shrewd socially. So could Miller. Either could have been the bigger man, if one or both had been willing to simply call Pritchard in and explain that the act was wearing. But that would have required some humility and grace on their part.

Instead, they said nothing to Pritchard. The media did the dirty work for them after general managers around the league began whispering about the Blazers ego clashes. Pritchard read what was written, was deeply hurt, and dialed the public appearances back in mid-2009. He stopped being as accessible to the media, but it was too late by then. And frankly, his solution missed the mark. He should have simply stayed out front and kept talking, but made those above and beside him on the totem pole feel appreciated and loved before, not after, he was fired.

Welcome to Ego Island.

That's the game you play when you help run a large company, I suppose.

It was telling that Miller never publicly supported Pritchard as the general manager flailed in recent months. He just stood there, probably thinking, "Now who's the big man?" and it became clear why in that post-draft news conference. Allen's decision to humiliate Pritchard and make an example of him isn't justifiable or humane. Pritchard's firing goes down as one of the lows in franchise history. Given the franchise is 0 for 22 seasons when it comes to championships under Allen's ownership, I doubt many of us will ever forget Thursday's sad scene.

Insiders will tell you that Pritchard was well liked by coach Nate McMillan and some others. But that Pritchard lost favor with his bosses and failed during the final 18 months of his tenure to connect with Allen and Miller.

It wasn't just Kevin.

Was it?

-- John Canzano -- Catch him on the radio on "The Bald-Faced Truth," 3-6 p.m. weekdays on KXTG (95.5)-- Follow him on Twitter